Many years ago when travelling through the South of France I split up with my boyfriend after an argument and found myself alone and waiting for a train at La Ciotat railway station<\/p>\n
My intention was to travel to Nice where the father of my best friend lived<\/p>\n
But I did not really want to bother the family<\/p>\n
As I sat in the shade of the station building I soon became aware of a number of people enjoying themselves around a swimming pool which was half hidden behind some trees<\/p>\n
I though little of it and continued waiting for my train to nowhere<\/p>\n
At about two in the afternoon a couple who were roughly the same age as me joined me on the station platform<\/p>\n
To my surprise they approached me and asked me a question<\/p>\n
But they were speaking French a language I hardly understood<\/p>\n
Sensing my confusion they both starting speaking English<\/p>\n
They asked me when my train was due and where I was going<\/p>\n
I told them my story and they suggested that I join them around the pool as I should not being wasting such a hot afternoon waiting for a train<\/p>\n
Without really thinking I joined them and soon I was sitting on a canvas chair next to the pool<\/p>\n
I was introduced to my new friends and was given a cool orange drink<\/p>\n
A girl who introduced herself as Neli sat opposite me and handed me a book<\/p>\n
It was called Aphrodite and had been written by a Pierre Louys<\/p>\n
The book looked quite old and Neli told me that it was an early edition dating from 1896<\/p>\n
I asked her why she was giving me such a valuable book<\/p>\n
She explained that although quite old the book was a common edition and was not worth much<\/p>\n
It was one of her favourite books<\/p>\n
I explained that I read and spoke French very badly<\/p>\n
She said it was my incentive to learn the language and when I mastered it and was able to read the book then I would share the pleasure that she had once experienced<\/p>\n
After borrowing a pair of shorts I joined my new friends in the swimming pool and found myself being quite noisy<\/p>\n
Later we stretched out next to the pool and soaked up the afternoon sun<\/p>\n
As evening approached I was told by Robert that if I intended to travel to Nice then a train would arrive at the station at around eight in the evening<\/p>\n
The group offered me board but I felt that I had to travel even though I had spent a memorable afternoon with Neli Robert and my other friends<\/p>\n
I was given a very light supper and was accompanied to the nearby station by Neli and Robert who were actually twins<\/p>\n
At just after eight on a beautiful Mediterranean evening my train arrived and I was soon on my journey to Nice<\/p>\n
I had swopped names and addresses with the intention of keeping in touch but knew I would not contact Neli or Robert or any of the others again<\/p>\n
I did not alight at Nice as I decided to travel to Italy<\/p>\n
My boyfriend never contacted me again and soon had another lover in tow<\/p>\n
For what it is worth I have travelled for most of my life since then never really settling anywhere<\/p>\n
I finance my travel by translating articles and stories into English as I now speak a number of languages well<\/p>\n
My French is fluent but I have never read the small book that Neli gave to me next to the swimming pool in\u00a0La Ciotat<\/p>\n
Quite why I am not sure as it travels everywhere with me<\/p>\n
Maybe I felt that the beauty of the book was more hers than mine and that if I attempted to read Aphrodite I might be disappointed<\/p>\n
It would spoil the memory of those few short hours that I spent at the swimming pool on that hot July day all those years ago<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many years ago when travelling through the South of France I split up with my boyfriend after an argument and found myself alone and waiting for a train at La Ciotat railway station My intention was to travel to Nice where the father of my best friend lived But I did not really want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}